The 9-Item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9): an aid to assessment of patient-reported functional outcomes after spinal surgery

In all groups, spinal surgery was followed by relief of pain and improved PRFO. Preoperative depression, as measured by the PHQ-9, predicted postoperative PRFO. Patients with moderate to severe depression as measured by the PHQ-9 experienced large mean decreases in the PHQ-9 score postoperatively. As a psychosocial metric, the PHQ-9 is a useful method of assessing value-added service of a spinal surgery.